Bombay House is aflutter with speculation about who will head the Tata Trusts that collectively hold a 66 per cent stake in Tata Sons, the holding company of the $165-billion Tata group, and will shape the destiny of the salt-to-software conglomerate.

Ratan Tata, who passed away on Wednesday, did not anoint a successor to lead the trusts, which are dedicated by the founders’ mandate to “use philanthropy as an instrument for social transformation”.

However, sources say his half-brother Noel Tata, 67, has emerged as the leading contender for the post of chairman of the two principal trusts: Sir Ratan Tata Trust and Sir Dorabji Tata Trust. Currently, he is on the board of trustees of both the trusts.

Noel Tata was inducted into the board of Sir Ratan Tata Trust in 2019. Three years later, he became a trustee of the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust. His fairly recent elevation to the trusts suggests that he was being groomed for the top job. However, the final decision will be taken by the boards of trustees of the two trusts.

At present, Vijay Singh and Venu Srinivasan of the TVS Group are the vice-chairmen of Sir Ratan Tata Trust. Besides Noel Tata, the other members include J.N. Tata, H.C. Jehangir, Mehli Mistry, and Darius Khambata.

Singh and Srinivasan are also vice-chairmen of Sir Dorabji Tata Trust. Besides Mistry and Khambata, former Citibank India CEO Pramit Jhaveri is one of the trustees.

After the controversy over Cyrus Mistry’s sudden removal from the position of Tata group chairman in October 2016, Ratan Tata had started to work on a new template for governance that would stymie anyone from assuming unfettered control of the group.

So, in August 2022, the shareholders of Tata Sons approved an amendment
to a key provision in its Articles of Association to have separate chairmen for the Tata Trusts and the holding company.

The amendment to Article 118, which deals with the appointment of the chairman of Tata Sons, said that “a person who is the chairman of either the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust or the Sir Ratan Tata Trust or of both, will not concurrently be eligible to be the chairman of the board of directors (of Tata Sons)”.

Until 2012, Ratan Tata was chairman of both the Trusts and the holding company. He gave up his executive responsibilities at the group when he turned 75.

The power-sharing principle was enunciated in the Articles of Association to ensure that no one in future ever got to straddle the Trusts and the holding company.

After the amendment in 2022, Ratan Tata was chairman of the Tata Trusts while N. Chandrasekaran headed Tata Sons.

Noel Tata, who has always kept a low profile and is known for his unassuming leadership style, was once tipped to head Tata Sons after Ratan Tata decided to step down as chairman of the group. He didn’t get that position, which eventually went to Cyrus Mistry.

Noel has been associated with the Tata group for over 40 years and is currently the chairman of Trent, Voltas, Tata International and Tata Investment Corporation. He also serves as vice-chairman of Tata Steel and the Titan Company.

In Trent, he was appointed as a non-executive director in August 2010 and thereafter as chairman of the company in March 2014. Before that, he served as managing director of the company for more than 11 years, when he was responsible for the growth of Trent across formats.

He was associated with Tata International Ltd as managing director from August 2010 to November 2021, and helped the company raise its turnover from $500 million to over $3 billion.